To be honest, I’m not one for labels these days — Accepting “feminism” as part of me.

To be honest, I’m not one for labels these days. Even those I apply to myself are held loosely because I’ve realized that, while I am very like many people in so many ways, I am always, always somehow different as well. And for obvious reasons a label will blind others to that fact.

I know how susceptible I am to those instant assumptions as well. I try not to ask the usual social questions in the usual ways for that reason. I don’t want to know what box you stand in sometimes … I want to know who you are, even outside the box. But if I learn what denomination you are too early, I might pull away before I see you because the word is associated with past wounds.

But I’ve realized that feminism is one of the labels within my circle of existence, and it has always been there in one form or another. Samantha helped me accept that realization in the article linked below.

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“Feminism made me brave and bold before I even realized that’s what I was becoming. Feminism gave me the courage to apply to grad school when my father said no, you’re not supposed to be outside the umbrella of my protection– and later convince him to support me. Feminism gave me the bravery to trot halfway across the country to live completely on my own for two years after I’d had a lifetime of never being more than 45 minutes away from home. Feminism gave me the chutzpah to start chasing my own goals without waiting for Mr. Right to come along first. Feminism taught me that I could do anything, be anything I wanted.